The high school games
by It's Mellarkable
Summary: Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are just normal high school students who are sworn enemies. What happens when they read the hunger games?
1. Chapter 1

**The high school games**

Katniss POV

"Guys come on!" Johanna screamed. We ran outside quickly because Johanna isn't one to be messed with when she starts to get impatient. Madge and I squeezed into the front seat of Johanna's sleek black convertible while Delly, Annie, Clove and Glimmer managed to fit themselves at the back. Johanna started the car and all of us started chatting about how the new school year would be like as we drove to school.

"I can't believe we're actually juniors!" Annie exclaimed. "I'm sure it's going to be a brilliant school year"!

Johanna drove into the school parking lot and spotted a perfect parking spot. She started to drive the car into the spot but just as she was turning, a fancy dark blue Mercedes pulled into the spot where Johanna was about to park.

Finnick Odair's famous sea green eyes popped out of the window.

"I'm sorry were you about to park here? We can totally move if you want because you know we're such gallant gentlemen." "Oh shut up freaking Odair!" Johanna yelled cursing loudly. "My oh my that's not very ladylike now is it miss Mason." Finnick retorted smirking. "Relax Jo, he's not worth it." said Madge calming Johanna as she searched for another spot to park.

I looked at all the boys piling out of the Mercedes. There they were , the most arrogant and naïve group of boys in the history of life. I watched as Finnick Odair , Gale Hawthorne, Cato Luvwig, Marvel Romero and lastly, Peeta Mellark, got their books out of the car and walked toward the school.

Suddenly Peeta's piercing blue eyes stared back into mine and I looked away. Peeta was kinda cute… but that didn't matter, I still hated him.

We walked into the school and looked at our class lists. Yes! We were all in the same classes. All of us cheered except Glimmer who groaned. "Aren't you happy we're all together this year Glimmer?" asked Delly confused. "Yes" she replied. "Only, the guys are with us too!" I looked at the list and indeed, all the five morons we saw in the parking lot were in the exact same classes as we were. Now it was our turn to groan. "I wish we were allowed to bring weapons to school." Clove said angrily. "Then Katniss could shoot them and I could chuck knives at them." "And I could chop their heads off with an axe." Johanna said with an evil grin. All of us laughed. "Come on guys." I said. "Let's go to torture land."

When we entered the classroom there were just a few seats left. All were scattered next to atleast one of 'the guys'. Typical . All of my friends went to the bearable seats and started deciding who should have them. In the end there was only one seat left. The one next to Peeta Mellark. Oh great! He just had to ruin my entire life. I sat down praying that he would spare me.

"Hey Katniss" he said tapping my shoulder. "What?" I answered coldly. "Listen, I know you guys think we're real jerks but I'm not actually that bad you know, so do you think we could start afresh?" He asked. His blue eyes shone with genuine warmth and kindness so I nodded. "I'm Peeta" he said. "Katniss" I smiled. "Pleasure to meet you Katniss" he said shaking my hand. I sighed in relief. Maybe the school year wouldn't be that bad after all.

"So, Katniss?" he said smiling. "Yeah?" I answered. "Do you believe in love at first sight, should I walk past you again?"

"Ughghghggg" I groaned angrily. So much for everything being alright. Peeta Mellark was still the arrogant jerk he'd always been.

At lunch all of us sat and compared our torments. Madge and Delly both had to sit next to Gale, who kept tapping Madge and looking the other way. That was bad enough, but the worst part was that he glued the end of Delly's jacket to the seat with superglue so when she tried to get up after class she was stuck and, in the end she had to tear out the bottom of her jacket. Annie and Johanna both sat next to Finnick who kept humming the song 'I'm sexy and I know it' just loud enough for Johanna and Annie to hear .He also stuck a piece of chewing gum in the lower part of Johanna's hair and when she lost her temper and tried to slap him he laughed and said that it was the perfect level for a trim which she desperately needed as her hair was worse than a crow's nest. Cato wrote a limerick for Glimmer, who sat next to him. It went like this:

_Hey dudes, the name's Cato_

_I'm so cool, yeah I'm super greato_

_This poem's for Glimmer_

_Coz she looks much slimmer_

_Since she stopped eating ice cream and tomato_

"I mean, when did I ever eat ice cream with tomato! It's totally gross!" exclaimed Glimmer, taking the tomato slices out of her sandwich and putting them on her ice cream.

"Marvel was super annoying!" Clove stated. "He kept trying to tickle me till I got so angry that I took a pair of scissors and stabbed at his desk, barely missing his fingers. All of us applauded her when she said that. "But he still didn't stop" she continued. "He threw a paper plane with a message written on it at me. I looked at the message and it said 'Love your hair! When did you dye it?'

"How was Peeta?" Annie asked me. "As pathetic and conceited as ever." I replied. "He acted friendly at first, and, just when I thought he wasn't too bad he started saying random pick up lines to me. The worst one was 'If people could get arrested for being beautiful, you'd have a multiple life sentence'." They all groaned. "I mean, we know they're complete idiots, but couldn't they act at least a little more mature! We're sixteen, not five!" Madge said angrily. Just then the bell rang for classes. Oh gosh! More Mellarkism !

We walked into class slowly, trying to make the brief peace we had last longer and trying to gather up the courage to survive the rest of the day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey people! Hope you like the second chapter. This chapter is in Peeta's POV. It's about what the guys were talking about at lunch. Please review. Criticism is also alright, it means you bothered to read the story! N I could understand how to improve the story too.**

**P.S If I did own the hunger games I wouldn't be posting this on a fan fiction site. I would get it published as part of the story! …. Or maybe not **

Chapter 2

Peeta's POV

"So how was it with Madge, Gale? Did you ask her out?" Marvel asked enthusiastically. Gale shook his head sadly. "I just chickened out." He said. "I kept tapping her to ask her but then I got extremely nervous so I just looked away. All of us patted him sympathetically. "The rest of us didn't have much luck either." Cato told him sadly.

"Man, these girls are tough nuts to crack!" Finnick exclaimed. "I mean , I can even charm Lindsay Lohan till she falls head over heels in love with me, but I can't get Annie to talk to me at all except out of annoyance !"

"Clove totally hates me and I have absolutely no idea why." Marvel told us. "I tried to talk to her but she kept snubbing me, and when I sent her a paper plane note saying that I loved her hair and I wanted to know when she had dyed it, she came to me and threw the note at my face!"

"You actually wrote that?" Cato asked, surprised. "And I thought the poem I wrote for Glimmer was bad!"

"I don't get it guys! According to 'the sacred book', all the ways we have been using so far, except for Marvel's of course, should make the girls go crazy over us." Finnick stated as he reached into his duffel bag and pulled out a copy of '101 WAYS TO WOO GIRLS', which was decorated with hearts and 'my little pony' stickers, and set it on a deep purple cushion in the middle of the table. "You know guys, we have already tried almost two thirds of the methods mentioned here and none of them have worked." I said thinking. "Do you think the book might be containing some um, you know, misinformation?" All of them gasped in shock. "Never question the knowledge contained within this heavenly object!" Gale said angrily.

Suddenly Cato jumped up in excitement. "What happened?" asked Finnick. "I think we should read another chapter of the book!" he said beaming. "You're absolutely right." Gale agreed. "Let us now choose a reader."

All of us tore small pieces of tissue paper and wrote our names on it. We gave the pieces to Gale who put them in Marvel's hat. All of us then held hands and Gale began to chant. "Oh! All the great girl charmers in this world. Tom Cruise, Elvis Presley, Zac Efron, Christopher Columbus….." "Christopher Columbus?" all of us asked in disbelief. Gale shrugged. "He's an adventurer. Girls like that." "Gosh, let's just continue already!" I said impatiently. Gale's hand dived deep into the cap and resurfaced clutching a tiny piece of paper. "Peeta Mellark!" he cried triumphantly. "Way to go Pete! You get the honor of reading way 72!" Finnick said happily, thumping me on the back. I dragged the cushion toward me and opened the book carefully, taking care not to damage it in any way, and opened it to chapter 72.

_Way 72: _it said. _Act in a way completely different from how you want to act toward the girls._ Below it was an elaborated version of the way but we never bothered with those.

"Well that's easy!" Cato said. "We want to act loving and sweet towards the girls, so we act rude and bossy towards them." All of us nodded our heads in agreement. Just then the bell rang and we got up to go to class. "So are we going to get together after school today?" I asked. "I have wrestling practice, but we can meet up after that." The others all shook their heads. "Cato and Marvel have spear throwing practice and I'm going hunting with my grandfather" Gale replied. "And my uncle's dropping by today so you know what that means! More trident lessons!" said Finnick ecstatically. All of us stared at him. "Umm Finnick, don't you think you're kind of taking the Percy Jackson thing a bit too far now?" asked Cato. Finnick had been obsessed with the 'Percy Jackson' novels for months, and when his uncle mentioned that he knew how to throw a trident, Finnick begged him to give him trident lesions. He was absolutely amazing at it too. Finnick would make a brilliant Percy Jackson if they ever decided to make a movie on it. Oh, wait! They already did. Damn. I remember watching it on DVD with the guys. Finnick was screaming like a girl every time Percy came on screen. Well, Logan Lerman was a pretty awesome Percy Jackson.

"Peeta!" Marvel said shaking my shoulder and interrupting my daydream. "Let's go to class or we'll be late!"

All of us walked to class and sat in our seats as Mr. Heavensbee, the English teacher, entered the class. "Hello students!" he chirped brightly. "Today, you will pair up with the person sitting on the seat beside you and together you and your partner will write a book report of the book 'To kill a mockingjay'.

Katniss looked at me and sighed. "Let's just get this over with", she said in an irritated voice. "So you tackle the first half and I'll write the second half and then we'll fit it together somehow, okay?" she asked. "Whatever." I replied in my best 'bossy and attitudy' voice. She raised her eyebrows, surprised at my answer, and then looked away in disgust. "Yes the book worked!" I thought happily. "She's totally into me!"

**Hope you liked it! By the way , I am a huge, HUGE fan of Peeta, Finnick, and Cato and I don't mean to insult them at all. I'll probably write one more chapter on just their high school life, before I plunge into the main plot. Please tell me if you liked this chapter and if there is anything I can improve in the story. **

**Thnx for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey people! Sorry for the delay but I had a severe case of writer's block. I couldn't think of anything more to add so I'm just gonna plunge into the main plot. Have fun and please review!**

**Chapter 3 **

Katniss's POV

The next few weeks past by too fast for me to process. Peeta and all the other guys continued to be extremely rude towards us and we all got really annoyed by their antics.

I sat in demurely in my seat as Mr. Heavensbee Proceeded to make the announcement he said he would make in the last few minutes of class.

"Students, I have a very special announcement to make," he began.

"Our very own Principal Collins has written a trilogy of books known as the hunger games series. The names of the books are 'The Hunger Games', 'Catching Fire', and 'Mockingjay'. She aims to get them published but before she can do, she wishes to know whether people will actually read them and find them interesting, and, as they cater to young adults and teenagers like yourselves, each of you will be given a copy of all three books which you are expected to read and submit a review of, by the end of the week. You will be given no other homework assignments this week so that you will have more spare time to read the books. I hope you find the books interesting."

He distributed the books around and I stuffed them into my forest green rucksack without another look. Oh well, they probably wouldn't be that bad. Not as bad as the other book Principal Collins had written. It was a book called 'How to deal with teenagers' and was full of really random tips for parents like 'Cauliflower helps keep the child's mood happy'. All of us hated it but our parents loved it so she went ahead and got it published anyway. My mom claims it's only a coincidence that since she read the book, all our meals have cauliflower in it.

Just then, the bell rang. I got up from my seat and went towards Clove and the others.

"I hope this isn't like the last book!" Glimmer exclaimed. "My mom makes me wear unicorn pajamas every night because the book said that unicorns help your child have sweet dreams. Really! Where did Principal Collins get all that stuff from! It's totally untrue!"

"This one's a science fiction book so it couldn't be that bad." Said Annie.

"It's also supposed to be a romance novel, and you know adults just don't get teenage romance so it's definitely going to suck." Johanna stated.

"Well guys," I said. "We just need to read those stupid books once and then forget about them. It'll be a piece of cake."

The others nodded in agreement.

"Let's hurry guys, we've been chatting here for ages," Delly said.

As we walked towards the cafeteria, we chatted about how the guys were being totally rude to us and made evil plans to kidnap them and throw them into the pacific ocean.

As we entered the cafeteria I gasped in shock. Every single person, even the non readers was sitting with their copy of 'the hunger games' and reading with an amused expression on their face. All my friends stood beside me, mouths hanging open in shock.

"Do you think Principal Collins may have actually written a good book this time?" Clove asked.

"Seems like it," said Annie, eyes wide in amazement. "Or maybe it's a book which uses hypnotic power to force you into reading it no matter how much you hate it."

"Or maybe everyone is just crazy." Delly said. "C'mon, let's eat."

We got our food and went to our usual table to eat. Suddenly, a sophomore called Jason spotted me and wolf whistled.

"Look people! The great Katniss Everdeen has arrived!"

Everyone then started laughing at me and I had absolutely no idea why. I mean, what did I do in order to become the laughing stock of the entire school?

"Why is everyone laughing at me?" I asked a girl called Wendy, my chemistry lab partner, who sat at a table nearby.

"Don't you know!" she replied, barely managing to contain her own giggles. "You're the main character in this book!"

"WHAT!" I screamed. I fished the book out of my bag and read the summary given at the back of it out loud to the others. It went like this:

_Could you survive on your own, on the wild, with everyone out to make sure you don't live to see the morning?_

_In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to each send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV._

_Sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before- and survival for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But is she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love._

I almost choked on the last word. Love? Really? Principal Collins should know better than to start writing love stories about ME.

"Ohh! It seems kind of interesting." said Annie, with a smile. "We should get together and read it after school today."

All of us agreed. "I'll get some air sickness bags." said Johanna. "If it's a romance novel which stars Katniss, I have a feeling there will be other people we know in the story too."

The bell then rang, signaling the end of lunch. We cleared our lunch table and went to our next class, which was chemistry.

All through Chemistry I questioned Wendy about how much she'd read. She said she finished the first chapter which was about how I'd hunt and support my family and stuff with my best friend Gale Hawthorne. Oh great! So those guys were part of the story too. This couldn't be good.

She also said that Madge had made an appearance, which meant that all the rest of them could most likely come into the story at some point or the other. I also asked some of the people behind me, causing professor Beetee to send me annoyed glances, but none of them had reached further than the first chapter of the book.

Even though I was really furious at the fact that I was the main character of the book, I was also a bit curious and I wanted to know what it was about. I hoped school would end soon so that we could read the books and find out what they were really about.

**Hope u liked this chapter. The next one is guaranteed to be hilarious. I'll probably commence writing it today itself.**

**PLEASE REVIEW! **


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey again! Hope you liked the last chapter! I forgot to put this in the author's note of the last chapter so I'll write it now: thank you kpfan72491 for the advice! I worked on it and I think the chapters are a bit more readable now so thanks a lot!**

**If any of you guys have any more tips on how to improve my writing and my story, pleassse tell me !**

**Btw I've written my second fanfic. If u like Harry potter and hg please read it! If u don't read it, the Glimmer and Clove mutts will get u, but no pressure! Jk ! u don't have 2read it if u don't want to, and Clove would never be sooo mean! She is my second favourite female character!**

**( I know it's really evil of me to advertise my other fanfics in my authors note! Sorry! U can skip dat part if u want to but, obviously, by the time u read dis u'd have already read dat! Pls ignore my random ranting!) **

Chapter 4

Katniss

I ran up the steps into Madge's house, my stomach churning with a mixture of different feelings. Questions swirled through my brain in utter confusion. I sighed and hoped the books didn't contain really weird and embarrassing stuff about me. I mean, if Principal Collins really wanted to write a book about some of her students, why couldn't she write one about Wendy! She was smart, popular, and really pretty whereas I was just a total idiot! Ughhhh! Life was sooo unfair!

I snapped out of my thoughts really quickly because a gorgeously delicious smell of cherry- cheese tart hit me. I sniffed the air and turned my head towards the smell, which was coming from the house next door. I caught a glimpse of ashy blond hair against the window of the first floor. Oh yeah, I remembered. It was the lair of the idiot.

I shuddered and looked away. Gosh, could this day get any worse!

I opened the door to Madge's house and went inside. Mrs. Undersee greeted me and told me the others were waiting upstairs.

I hurried up to Madge's room, rolling my eyes as I passed her music room, which was covered with posters of Justin Beiber. Madge played the piano very well and claimed that Justin Beiber was her inspiration. I think she's just acting like an idiotic, obsessed fangirl because seriously, how can Justin Beiber inspire anyone to do anything apart from `drawing moustaches on his posters with markers or throw his cd's out of the window. Yup, Madge was just totally obsessed with him. Even though she claimed she disliked him and just put his posters up coz he inspired her, it was totally obvious that she was crazy over him. I mean, what kind of JB hater uses Justin Beiber lip gloss!

I walked into Madge's room, where she and all the others were waiting. The bed was laden with glasses of iced tea, boxes of pizza, and bowls of carrot sticks and dip. I grabbed a glass of iced tea and a slice of pizza and plunked myself down next to Johanna as Delly opened the first page of the book and started reading.

The first chapter was every bit as horrible as I thought it would be. GALE HAWTHORNE was my BEST FRIEND! I absolutely hated the loser as much as I hated the rest of those jerks! At the beginning I was worried that he may be the one I liked but the others assured me that it wouldn't be so because it would be stupid to reveal the person right at the beginning. Annie thought the person I'd love would probably be the one who'd be reaped with me. That seemed a good theory. I just hoped that 'someone' wouldn't be a certain blonde haired blue eyed jackass.

The others were all like "awwww! Sisterly love!" When we started the second chapter and read the part where I volunteered for Prim. Well, at least principal Collins got that part right. I definitely would have volunteered for Prim if the story was true.

Lost in thought, I didn't even realize when Delly finished that bit and went to the boy tribute. I just took a sip of iced tea and came back to reality when Delly read:

_I don't even have time to wish for Gale's safety when she's reading the name. "Peeta Mellark."_

When I heard the last bit, my heart almost stopped in shock and I promptly spat out my iced tea all over Johanna.

"Whaaaaaaaaaatttttt!" I screamed hysterically. I started hyperventilating and running around the room, ranting like crazy.

"What the hell! Why him! Out of all people, why HIM! I hate him! There are much cuter guys in this world! Couldn't Principal Collins have paired me with Orlando Bloom or Alexander Ludwig or some other super hot celebrity? Why is it always HIM!

"Breathe." Said Annie softly, patting my shoulder as I gathered the remainder of my sanity. "Don't worry. It's just fiction. We'll read all the books and then we can sue Principal Collins! Wouldn't that be fun!" I smiled a futile smile as Delly continued reading.

We read the entire book within the next two hours and I was so glad Johanna remembered to bring the air sickness bags because they sure came in handy! Johanna also kept a first aid kit and an oxygen mask (her father was a doctor) beside her in case I got a heart attack or something.

The book was hideously awful! I couldn't believe I KISSED Peeta in it! Gross! Or was it really? "Dude, don't think like that!" I mentally chided myself. "He's a complete moron!"

"Hey guys!" Madge said suddenly, ending the awkward silence we'd all had while we were thinking about the book. "Why don't you all stay over for the night? Then we can finish the other two books so we can be fully informed about what happens in the story and add any more complains we have to our list of complains to give principal Collins tomorrow!"

The rest of us agreed and went off to our respective houses to get our clothes for the night and for school the next day. As I dumped all the stuff I needed into a bag, I thought. Was Peeta really that bad? He didn't seem like rude person when you looked at him. He seemed quite sweet. NO! Don't think like that! The one thing I was certain of, though, was that he was surely hiding something. Well, maybe I would find out what it was soon.

With that I walked out of my house, into the cool evening air, to Madge's house. All prepared to endure more mental torture,

**Hey guys! This chapter wasn't as funny as I intended to make it so I'm really sorry for that. I'd also like to apologize for keeping you all waiting for soo long! School just started n I had very little free time. (Yeah, in Mumbai, there isn't any spring n summer is during April, May and part of June. After that the monsoon winds come and the whole place becomes boring n rainy n dull, so our summer vacays are from Mid April to Mid June).**

**Thnx 4 all your support!**

**P.S sry 4 the Geography lecture **


	5. Chapter 5

**oI'm really sorry I made u guys wait for sooooooo long! Well, here's chapter 5! Enjoy and review! Next chapter in Peeta's POV (Probably).**

**Disclaimer: My name isn't Suzanne Collins so I obviously don't own hunger games!**

Chapter 5

Katniss's POV

"Noooooo!" I screamed, holding on to Madge's door for dear life as my friends tried hard to yank me away and drag me to school.

"I will not, I repeat, NOT go to school today and have people tease me with that godforsaken idiot! I'm going to stay right here for the rest of my life!"

"C'mon Katniss, that's even worse! If you don't go to school today, people will think you're a coward!" Madge said.

"Do you really think so?" I asked her.

"Definitely!" She replied. "By actually turning up for classes today, you're going to prove to the entire school that you are truly fit to be the mockingjay!" I stared at her, with my eyebrows raised.

"Sorry! Bad thing to say!" She said, recoiling a bit at my glare.

"All right," I sighed "I'll go to school today if we go and complain to Principal Collins before class about putting us in her book."

The others agreed and we put on hoodies, caps and sunglasses, just in case people decided to throw tomatoes, or worse, cardboard mockingjay pins, at us. Something like this had happened before, when a boy had gotten an essay on 'the origin of swords' published in the newspaper. People got so fed up at his boasting about it that they actually made cardboard cutouts of swords and threw them at him till one of them hit his eye and he had to go to the nurse. Well, our situation isn't actually something to boast about, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

Johanna quickly parked the car in an empty space and we ran straight to the principal's office, trying to ignore the laughter that echoed all around us. When her secretary tried to stop us, Clove simply pushed her aside and we barged into the principal's office.

Principal Collins did not look the least bit surprised at us barging into her office; on the contrary she seemed to be expecting us.

"Hello girls." She said in a calm voice

"Why did you write a series of books with US as the main characters, Principal Collins!" Exclaimed Glimmer. "Now everyone will laugh at us for the rest of our lives!"

"Actually," Principal Collins said. " Everyone loved the books and have already finished reading every single one of them. In fact, they submitted such wonderful reviews that I've already called my publisher and they will be in stores worldwide in…" She looked at her watch, "Exactly 10.4626 seconds."

"What!" All of us screamed. "We could sue you for using us in a story without our consent Principal Collins." said Annie angrily.

"Well girls, if you sue me I can expel all of you." replied Principal Collins.

"If you expel us for no reason that would just give another thing to sue you for!" Johanna exclaimed.

Principal Collins scrunched her nose in thought.

"All right," she said finally. "Let me make a deal with you girls. You will get 10% of the profits from the book."

"20." Johanna said scowling.

"Jo!" The rest of us screamed.

"What?" she asked. "Everyone at school's already read it, so there's no point in suing, and we'll get fame and fortune too." We nodded our heads uncertainly.

"Well, we have ourselves a deal," Principal Collins stated. "Now, go to class, girls, or you'll be late."

I walked out of the office feeling frustrated and unhappy. We quietly made our way towards our class and as soon as we entered, everyone started hooting. I could hear people screaming things like "The mockingjay and her sidekicks have arrived!" and "Hey Mrs MELLARK! Why don't bring your daughter to school tomorrow and then we can tell her all about how her mom is an idiot!"

Just then, a boy called Kevin started singing:

_Katniss and Peeta sitting in a tree_

_K-I-S-S-I-N _"ummmph!"

He cried as Johanna whacked his head with her Biology textbook.

We sat down at our seats and I snuck a glance at Peeta. His face was redder than Rihanna's hair and he was covering his ears with his hands. I didn't blame him. At least half the girls in our class were sitting at the back wearing 'team Peeta' t-shirts and screaming "We love Peeta!" Well, the only good thing about this is that Peeta might finally stop his rude and bossy attitude towards me now.

All seven of us walked toward the local zoo where we volunteered every Tuesday, glad to have escaped that awful place called school.

We went to the newspaper stand outside the zoo and bought a copy of 'the evening Gazette'. There was a whole two page spread about 'the hunger games'. Delly read it aloud:

_Our very own Suzanne Collins, the author of the very clever and informative book 'how to deal with teenagers', has written a new, sensational and gripping trilogy of books called 'hunger games', 'catching fire,' and 'mockingjay, which have taken the world by a storm._

Below that was an article written by someone else about why the book was so brilliant:

_I think the beauty of this series is the originality of the characters. The names, characteristics and many other things about the characters are qualities found in no real person in this world._

Clove snorted in disgust "yeah, sure, we don't exist in this world! The writer of this article must be absolutely crazy." Delly read on:

_The 'hunger games' series has done all across the world and has sold 50 billion copies of each book on day one itself, which is a total record!_

"Wait a minute!" cried Delly. "There aren't even 50 billion people living in this world! So how can there be 50 billion copies of each book sold when the entire world population is only about 7-8 billion!"

All of us shrugged. "Hey guys," Annie said looking puzzled. "The zoo's awfully quiet today! It's never like that at this time of the day. I think we should go check out what's wrong"

We walked inside the zoo where a mind boggling site awaited our eyes. Every single animal was sitting and reading 'the hunger games' series! I gaped in astonishment. Suddenly, Gordon, the prize Gorilla, started wailing. I turned around and saw him wearing a 'Finnick rocks' t-shirt and bawling loudly over 'mockingjay'. I think he was at the part where Finnick died.

"Aghhhhhhhhhghhhhhhhhh!" All of us screamed loudly and ran out of the zoo, yelling as if our lives depended on it and wondering what had gotten wrong with the world.

**MEANWHILE AT THE ZOO**

"Hey, girls! Wait!" The zookeeper yelled but to no avail.

"Damn!" He told his assistant. "I wanted to tell them about my great gimmick of making the animals look like they are reading 'the hunger games' whereas they are actually 'reading' their favorite scents which I put on the books."

The assistant shook his head. "Teenagers!" He muttered, rolling his eyes.

**Hope u guys liked this! I know it's really random. I thought of it during computer class today. Please review and tell me if u have any suggestions about the story!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay! I know I haven't updated in ages and a lot of you probably have a great desire to murder me. I sincerely apologize for that. I've just shifted to a new school which is really competitive and very 'marks based'. Yeah, schools in India are really stupid. Life is all about grades. It doesn't matter if you're dumb or actually intelligent; you just learn all your textbooks off by heart, get great marks in your exams. Then you give your board exams ( these weird exams you give in the tenth grade which are pretty much supposed to determine your learning by heart, or 'mugging up' as we say in school, power), get a ninety percent or above, go to engineering or medical school, and become a doctor or a lawyer. And by the end of your education, whatever you have learnt is from your experiences, not school. The irony of it is that these days the parents encourage their children to 'think outside the box' but they just don't want to. Not me though, I wanna become an author. I've already thought of an idea for a story which, according to me, wouldn't make a bad read. Now all I have to do is sit down in my spare time and write all six hundred or so pages of it. Yeah, so basically the story might probably be finished by the time I'm 92, if not more. Actually, writing advertisements wouldn't be such a bad idea either. Yeah, I know, I'm absolutely crazy. I'm only thirteen and I've already got the rest of my life planned out.**

**Once again I've bothered you guys by writing my **

**Entire life story so I'm really sorry for that. This chapter is Peeta's POV of the day after the zoo incident. **

Chapter 6

Peeta's POV

I crept out of Finnick's car as inconspicuously as I could, with all the other guys surrounding me like bodyguards, fully loaded water pistols ready within their clutches. We moved along carefully to my locker and I grabbed my books and checked my schedule before we moved along to the boy's bathroom where all of us, especially I, would be safe until the bell rang for classes to begin.

Yesterday, I had come to school prepared to bear an extraordinarily large amount of teasing and insults, due to the books that Principal Collins had written. But nothing, absolutely NOTHING, could have prepared me for what actually happened. As soon as all of us had entered the school building, we were greeted by hordes of girls screaming our names and chasing after us. Agreeing that each man must fend for himself, we ran in different directions as fast as we could. Apparently, the girls had guessed what we were about to do and so they split themselves into five groups and each ran after their favorite character. Pretty soon the girls who wore 'team Peeta t-shirts had caught up with me and I was immediately bombarded with questions ranging from whether I would go out with them to whether I was secretly cheating on Katniss with a cheese bun in the books, the latter being absolutely nonsensical. If that wasn't bad enough, one of the girls tripped and I, being a gentleman, helped her up.

"Oh My GOD!" She squealed. "He touched me!"

This made all the other girls want to touch me as well and I ran away from them with all my might.

I was brought back to reality by the sound of "We love you Peeta," ringing in my ears. I looked around and saw a sea of familiar t-shirts.

"Okay guys, you know the drill." Cato said rushing off toward the gym.

We split up once more and I dodged past the crowds of skateboarders, kids playing temple run, and people merely having a 'catching up on the latest gossip' session before classes began, desperate to escape from the clutches of my fans.

I ran as fast as I could but those girls were always able to catch up with me. I needed a safe place to take refuge, and fast as I was starting to get out of breath. I swerved around a corner, and, spying a small broom closet, I ran in and shut the door.

Hearing the sound of footsteps growing fainter with every passing second, I relaxed.

"What are you doing here?" asked a voice. My heart leaped as I realized who the voice belonged to. I looked around, and sure enough, she with all her beauty, was sitting right behind me.

"So, what are you doing here?" Katniss repeated. I felt my heartstrings twang as I replied "Running away from my 'fans'. Man, being famous sure is tough."

I saw a flicker of a smile on her face and asked "So, what about you?"

"Your 'fans'" she said angrily, "have had a great urge to murder me ever since I entered the school building."

"Wow, some people in this world are just amazing." I said in mock awe. Both of us laughed.

We chatted on until the bell rang for class, and found out that we had a lot in common.

"You know, maybe you're not as bad as I thought you were."

She said as she left for the chemistry lab.

I walked to class slowly, my heart full of glee. But some part of me was confused. Did she think I was pathetic before? I was just following the sacred book, but apparently the sacred book didn't work as well as I thought it would.

The question irritated me throughout the day. After school I knew I wouldn't be able to rest in peace until I found the answer to my questions, so I decided to consult an expert on the matter; professor Boggs.

Professor Boggs was not just a teacher; he was the greatest teacher the world has ever known. He was a little old but he was brilliant and really knew how to connect with the students. He also gave great advice about girls. I knew he was the perfect person to consult on the matter.

I found him in his classroom correcting test papers.

"Professor" said. "I need your help."

I explained my dilemma to him and he nodded, a knowing smile etched on his face.

"Peeta," he said gently. "I'm going to explain this to you in math language." I nodded. Professor Boggs was the math teacher and the only one who could make math seem interesting.

"Peeta," he started. "You plus sacred book equals minus, whereas you plus you equals," he drew a large addition sign on the blackboard, "plus."

"So you mean I should just be me and not follow the book and then Katniss might like me?" I asked, slowly comprehending what he was saying. He nodded.

"Thank you professor Boggs, I really appreciated your help." I said and walked out of the classroom.

I went outside where the other guys were waiting for me, content and ready to begin being myself towards Katniss.

**Hope you liked this chapter. By the way, I won't be able to write and update the next chapter until the first week of September because my exams are starting soon. But don't worry, I'll have chapter 7 up as soon as my exams r over. **

**Pleease review! **

**I've got an idea for another fanfic which I might post in September so look out for it!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Here's chapter 7! My exams are going swimmingly (even though I dunno how to swim) and life is great! Here's chapter 7. It's about Katniss the day after the 'crazy fans' incident.**

Chapter 7

Katniss's POV

No matter how hard I tried I just couldn't stop thinking about Peeta. I did whatever I couldn't think of anything else. It wasn't humanly possible for me to think about anything else. I stayed up for hours last night pondering over our meeting yesterday.

My opinion of him had gone through such a complicated plastic surgery after yesterday that it was barely recognizable. After yesterday's incident he actually seemed like a real person and not just some kind of android-sent-from-Pluto-who's-mission-was-to-make-my-life-a-living-hell.

The funniest part was that I wasn't the only one who had had an opinion changing encounter with one of the guys yesterday.

"I can't believe it! I mean he can swim! He loves Percy Jackson! I love Percy Jackson!" Annie gushed, like a little girl in a candy store. Coincidently Annie too had been chased by a mob of Finnick lovers and had to take refuge in the gym. She had decided to head to the swimming pool to get some practice for her upcoming swim meet. Over there who should she meet but dear Mr. Odair. They chatted for ages and almost forgot about classes. But unlike Peeta and me, Finnick asked Annie out on a date and, judging by her squeals; she accepted and was equally happy about it as Finnick. And if that wasn't a coincidence enough, Clove, Glimmer AND Madge all had encounters with Marvel, Cato and Gale respectively. Although none of them had been asked out on dates, they had all had hearty conversations and had developed huge crushes on them overnight. It was amazing how much people could change in such a short span of time. But of course that would never be like them. I didn't like Peeta. Or did I?

I mentally murdered myself for thinking that way and walked along with the others to class.

I sat at my seat trying to ignore the usual teasing that always awaited me in class. I looked beside me and saw Peeta's blue eyes staring up at mine.

"Hey Katniss," he said smiling, his cheeks turning a slight shade of pink.

"Hey," I replied, my cheeks starting to reflect his blush.

"So uh Katniss, I um, I was uh," he stuttered.

"Go on." I urged him, puzzled as to what was making him stutter that much.

"Well, I uh, you see I, I was wondering um, I was wondering if you'd uh,"

He was cut off by a loud noise that sounded like a trumpet blowing. On checking I saw that it really was a trumpet being blown by a blond haired girl wearing a shirt saying 'Peeta will you marry me?' which, for some unearthly reason, made my blood boil. All the 'Peeta fans' in the class were standing in a line, ready to make a long, Peeta filled, definitely boring speech.

"What in heavens name are you girls doing, standing here!" exclaimed Mrs. Mags, our history professor. She was an easygoing teacher but could be very firm when necessary. She was also very old. Like a hundred centuries old. In fact, some people made up a theory that she knew her history so well because she was there for most of it.

"Oh, professor Mags! We aren't doing anything wrong. We just want to give a little presentation." Said Cashmere, the snobbiest girl in the school and the leader of the Peeta fanclub.

"It better not be a little thing about how hot blue eyed blondes who are your classmates and appear in fictional romance books are or something like that." Said professor Mags, causing Peeta to blush furiously and all the other boys in the class to snicker.

"I don't know what drove Suzanne to put her students as the lead characters in her novel" she muttered to herself, sitting down at the teacher's desk.

"Oh no professor Mags!" Cashmere said in a sugar sweet voice. "It's about religion."

"Oh, alright then. But hurry up!" Professor Mags said in an irritated voice.

A girl with red hair called Vixen Fox brought out a microphone while all the other girls started to adjust Cashmere' hair.

"Good morning my fellow students," said Cashmere. "I would now like to talk a little about religion. There are many different religions in this world. Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism," she looked around for inspiration. "Paganism. And now we have a new religion just made. Ladies and gentlemen, I now present to you the new religion Peetaism!" All the boys in the class started laughing uncontrollably while Peeta looked as if he wanted to commit suicide that very second.

"What kind of nonsense is this, Girls? I specifically told you all that there must be no talking about Mr. Mellark!" said professor Mags in a rage.

"But professor Mags, we are practicing our religion! You cannot prohibit us from doing that! It's against the law! We can protest if you don't!" All the girls standing there cried out.

Professor Mags had no will to argue as she was thoroughly fed up of their antics so she let them continue. As the girls droned on and on about that do's and don'ts of Peetaism, I tried not to fall asleep and looked around the classroom. I caught Wendy's eye and she grinned, finding the whole thing as stupid as I did.

The bell rang and all of us rushed out of the classroom as fast as we could, leaving the fans halfway through the 'clothing to be worn by Peetaists' part.

I rushed to my locker and found a tomato red Peeta waiting for me.

"Hey", he said. "So um, I wanted to ask you but the whole you know, thing happened. So uh, do you um, do you wanna go uh, go get some um, coffee later or something like that?"

"Sure." I answered and went towards my next class. Hmm, coffee with Peeta. This should be interesting.

**Hope you guys liked it. I just wanna thank you all for being such awesome readers. I've got like, 71 reviews for six chapters! I thought I'd get about 20 odd reviews for the entire story. You guys are amazing! I realize that I'm really bad at updating on time but I promise that from now on I'm going to try and update weekly. Thanks for being such amazing readers!**


	8. Chapter 8

**I'm so happy! I got a 72 out of 80 in English language which is the highest you can get! EVER! It's like the highest allowed by the board ( English lang corrections are very strict and it's impossible to get full marks). Anyways, sry to bother you! Here's chapter 8. It's about their coffee date.**

Chapter 8

"I never thought I'd live to see this day." Glimmer sniffed. "I'm so proud of you!"

"I know!" Supplied Delly. "Who knew that there would actually be a day when Katniss would evolve from a baseball fanatic-idiot-tomboy-douchebag into a girl!"

"I can't believe this!" Madge adds. "Katniss is actually, physically, realistically PRIMPING!"

"Oh shut up!" I groan. After lunch I had starting feeling really self conscious about how whether I looked respectable enough to go for coffee with Peeta. Luckily, all seven of us had a free period right before school ended so I had plenty of time to make sure I looked great.

My brain was in utter turmoil. I had never felt this way before. What was Peeta doing to me? And the funniest part was that I didn't even like him that way.

"Sure you don't!" snorted Johanna when I told them what was going on in my head.

"Katniss!" Clove said, shaking her head. "I've known you since we were in diapers. You have never acted like this about a guy before. Just admit it. You are totally crazy over him!"

"No I'm not!" I retorted obstinately, crossing my arms and turning on my scowl, whose appearance had been getting scarcer since my little encounter with Peeta in the closet. Oh gosh! Maybe I really was falling in love with him.

"The icy heart of the lioness slowly starts to melt in the rays of her handsome sunlight." Annie said and chuckled. "It sounds like a really clichéd romance novel, or a soap opera. An overly dramatic, super pathetic soap opera.

All of us giggled at her hilarious, yet subtly true analysis of the situation.

"BRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNN GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!"

The school bell rang loudly signaling the end of the day.

I stopped to check myself in the mirror one last time, and then ran out to find Peeta.

"Hey Katniss," I heard a voice call out. I swirled around and who should I find behind me than dear Mr. Mellark .

"Wow! You look great!" he exclaimed staring at my face, his cheeks turning a slight shade of pink.

"Thanks." I smiled, my cheeks burning brightly in comparison to his faint blush.

Madge, Delly and Glimmer all lived true to their hair colour, and amongst them, they had enough makeup and other beautifying agents to make a Gorilla look like Paris Hilton. Their vast range of supplies, combined with their amazing talent at the art, had resulted in me actually looking pretty and feminine. A feat previously thought to be accomplished by no mortal.

"So, um should we go?" He asked. I nodded and we walked out of the school gates to a small and cozy coffee shop just across the street from school.

The shop was warm and comfortable and the various scents whirling in the air were heavenly. We ordered two lattes and chatted while we waited for our order.

We ended up sitting in that tiny, secluded shop until about six o' clock, clueless about the time and busy chatting away about almost every topic under the sun, and quite a few beyond it. When we finally relented to the fact that it was really late and that we should get going home. Peeta, being quite the gentleman, insisted that he drive me home. We went to his car, which was still in the school parking lot as we had walked to the coffee shop.

I adjusted myself in the comfy leather seat while he started up the engine.

"So um that was great, thanks." I said shyly.

"Yeah it was," he said. "So uh do you want to catch a movie tomorrow night? It's Friday so we can go for a late night show." he asked. "Just as friends." He added quickly, seeing the reaction on my face.

"Sure," I answered. It seemed like fun and I admit I did want to spend some more time with him.

I searched my being for any sign of relief at his last comment but all I could find was a little disappointment.

"So what movie do you wanna go watch?" he asked.

"I dunno." I said. "What's playing at the moment?"

He leaned over and opened the dashboard, taking out a piece of paper on which all the movies that were currently in theatres were written.

"Well, there's _My Little Pony meets Trista the fairy." _I snorted.

"Yeah, I didn't think so. There's a romance movie called _siphoning the grass _but it doesn't seem like the type of movie you'd be interested in." he scans the paper for a good movie. "Aha! There's a horror movie called _The woman in Black _that's just released. It stars Daniel Radcliffe, you know, the guys who's in the _Harry Potter _series. It seems like an interesting movie."

"Yeah, that sounds good." I said.

He drove around a corner and stopped in front of my house.

"Here you go," he said.

"Thank you." I replied. For a moment I sat immobilized, his face just centimeters away from my own, drowning in an immense desire to kiss him. With an effort I brushed that desire away and gave him a hug. I stepped out of the car and waved as he pulled away.

"We're just friends." I chanted, trying to get a grip on myself.

I walked up the stairs to my front door wondering whether I actually liked him or not, and how in heaven's name did my life suddenly get so confusing.

**Hope u liked it! Please review!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi world! I've got 92 reviews till now! I love you guys! Let's see if we can get to 100 in this chapter! By the way, I apologize to those people who adore woman in black. I like it too. I think it would make a great comedy (sorry that was kind of mean). Anyways here's the next chapter. It takes place on Friday evening. Enjoy and pleeeeeeeeeeaaaaasse review! A lot of random stuff happens in this chapter.**

Katniss' POV

I stood outside my house, extremely nervous about our date, if you could call it that. I was wearing a strapless turquoise blue dress that hugged my figure well. A bit too well if you should ask me. I had wanted to wear just a normal t-shirt and a pair of jeans, but Johanna had stuffed me into this unholy, glove like strap of a dress, countering my furious attempts at refusal with a simple 'shut up'.

I had absolutely no idea why all the girls were getting so hyper about our outing. They had all established firm relationships with the guys and insisted on all of us sitting at the same table at lunch. I almost died at the insanely large doses of flirting I had to endure all through lunch. Johanna and Delly too were getting fed up so the three of us and Peeta went off to sit at another table in the end. They were happy with their own boyfriends so why should they care about MY social life? Johanna and Delly were single too weren't they?

All my thoughts turned to jelly as a soft honk reached my ears. I spotted Peeta's car right in front of me and opened the door to enter.

Peeta stared at me like I was a goddess or something.

"Wow", he said. "You look…"

"Pretty." I suggested.

He laughed. "I was thinking more along the terms of supermegafoxyhot."

"Thanks," I smiled at him and he smiled back. A warm, tender feeling started to wash over my entire body, from the tip of my toes to the fluffiest hair on my scalp. I blinked and shook myself lightly. I didn't like that feeling. It made me feel soft and vulnerable.

We drove to the theatre in silence. Upon reaching, Peeta parked his car in the parking lot, and, arm in arm; we began our journey to the movie hall.

Our arms laden with popcorn, coke and candy aplenty, we located our seats and sat down. The movie began.

After a few minutes of what seemed like utter crap starring a guy-who-cannot-act-and-should-stick-to-Harry-potter, I turned to Peeta who was watching the movie with an amused expression on his face, as if he watching the most hilarious comedy of the decade instead of a serious horror film.

"The movie sucks, doesn't it?" I asked. He smiled and nodded. "So, want to chat?"

He shrugged nonchalantly.

We ended up chatting about random stuff like our partiality for cheese buns, how annoying cats are and the disgraceful state into which linkin park had sunk into and how they should quit singing.

Suddenly, a piercing scream rang out .

" Aggh! It's the woman in black! She's making the girl kill herself! Run away Harry, or take out your wand and fight! I don't care which just do SOMETHING!"

The insanely funny and absurd comment sent me bursting into peals of laughter. Not Peeta though, he narrowed his eyes and frantically looked around, searching for the owner of the voice.

"That was Finnick." He told me through gritted teeth.

"Are you sure?" I asked, shocked.

He nodded. "I'd remember that high pitched squeal anywhere. Um hey, did you tell your friends about our little um, err, you know, um 'outing'?

I nodded. "Yeah, so?"

"So, I have a feeling they're spying on us." He replied angrily.

Realization flooded my brain as I remembered the girls and their odd behavior in the past two days. How they snickered when they thought I wasn't paying attention. How they waved away my offer of telling them all about our date, or outing as Peeta called it, by saying that they would have front row seats to our little 'love story'. They knew that I didn't want them to spoil it for me then why would they be so mean as to come and spy on us?

"What do we do about it?" I asked my vision now red. I probed through my vast knowledge of medieval torture techniques and wondered what would be the appropriate punishment for their crime.

"How about we try to find them first. But we'll have to do it sneakily and not disturb anyone or we'll get chucked out of the theatre".

I nodded and we slinked out of our seats and crawled down the aisle, trying to merge ourselves amongst the many shadows present.

After a few minutes of bumping into thousands of feet, some with a pungent stench that even their shoes couldn't efficiently conceal, I remembered my small penlight. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled it out and switched it on. The light made it easy for us to see but wasn't bright enough to distract the other viewers. Peeta smiled and nodded in approval and we continued our long, deathly journey through the dense forests of shoes, pants, bare legs and the occasional long skirt.

Suddenly, the beam of my penlight fell on a pair of huge fire engine red pumps with weird satanic symbols and hearts drawn all over them in black permanent marker. I immediately recognized them. The small _Johanna Mason _etched in the corner confirmed that the owner was someone I was looking for.

I rose and came face to face with Johanna and a boy in our math class called Gloss.

"Johanna!" I screamed into her ear. She jumped with a start and turned her head in my direction. Her entire face turned scarlet and she bore the look of a little child who had done something wrong.

"Where are the others?" I asked with clenched teeth. She shook her head trying to look confused but not succeeding.

"I know you guys were spying on us. Give up. We've found out."

Johanna's eyes widened. "Oh crap! I forgot to spy!" she said, frantically searching her person for something. Finding it, she opened it out. It was a sheet of lilac paper with the words _spy report: Katniss and Peeta's date _written in Glimmer's neat handwriting.

"I was supposed to fill it out with what I could see from here! Damn, I've just got to make up something random now."

Gloss handed her a pen and she started to scribble words on it.

"What about him?" I asked pointing to Gloss.

She looked up, embarrassed. "Well, we're kind of uh dating." She stuttered.

I raised my eyebrows. "Oh, now you not only spy on me but also date someone without telling me, your oldest friend!"

Her eyebrows knotted in guilt. "I, um I didn't," Her face shone redder than ever.

"Delly isn't doing her spying job either!" She finally burst out. "She's making out with Thresh in the back row!"

This was all the information I needed to hear and she was willing to give. I dragged Peeta, who was still on the floor, Johanna and Gloss toward the back row.

Within fifteen minutes we had rounded up all of the girls and guys and sent them home with accuses of betrayal and treason and evil looks from other viewers who had heard the story.

"So," Peeta turned to me and said. "I'm so sorry that my friends were acting like complete idiots."

I laughed. "Well mine weren't any less either."

He took my hand in his. "Come on, let's get out of this theatre. I know a special place we can go to and salvage what's left of our date."

I grinned at the word 'date' and entered his car. He started the engine and we drove off into the night.

He turned to face me. "I have a confession to make," he said. "Remember I asked you to come to the movie with me just as friends. Well actually," he took a deep breath. "I like you. A lot. Heck, I'm head over heels in love with you! I just, I'm not sure if you feel the same way."

I was ready to pull down my wall again. The nice strong wall I drew around my brain to prevent anyone from getting to close to me. The one I had used ever since my father died in that horrible church fire on Christmas Eve five years ago. Only a handful of people were able to penetrate that wall. My friends for instance, and my sister Prim who I cherished more than anything else in this world. But I couldn't. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't bring myself to run out of that car and away from him forever. I could not shut him out.

Then, I realized it was too late. That he had already broken down the barrier and stormed into the castle. I cared about him and there was no possible way to undo that. That if I blocked him out now, I would suffocate with the guilt and sorrow. I loved him.

I looked towards him and smiled. My mouth formed the words they had been itching to say. "I love you too."

His eyes sparkled like a drop of rain on a bone dry desert and his smile shone bright. I shyly raised my eyes to meet his. His face inched closer to mine, enveloped in a beautiful radiance.

"Stop," I said giggling. "Or you'll probably run into a lamppost or something."

He chuckled and turned his face towards the front again, glancing at me regularly. His hand found mine and I clutched it tightly. Whether our relationship would work out or not, I didn't know. All I knew was that I didn't want to ever let go of him.

**There you go. A nice long chapter to make up for the wait. I almost puked twice while writing the last bit because I think it's too cheesy for life. This is the first time I've ever written something as mushy as this and I hope I've done alright. As you can very well see in the story, I am absurdly inexperienced at writing romance. According to a friend of mine, I am mentally affected because I'm not that huge a fan of romance. So, anyways, I would really appreciate it if you guys could send me a few tips. Another thing: I've racked my brains for an interesting gimmick to make people review and come up with this really stupid thing. You guys send me a word or a sentence in your review which you want me to translate to Hindi for you and I send you the Hindi word or sentence and how to pronounce it in a pm ( I'll write it in the next chapter for guest reviewers). I have no idea why you'd want that but it was the only idea my poor little stupid brain could come up with. But beware, my Hindi isn't very fluent so don't send me really complicated stuff please. **


	10. Chapter 10

**I'm extremely apologetic for not updating for the past twenty billion centuries (an obvious exaggeration, it's been about three months, which is also a lot). This chapter is in Peeta's POV and it is the second last chapter before the epilogue.**

Peeta's POV

As I sat holding the slender hand of my true love, I felt happier than any other being, mortal or otherwise.

Hmm, that would have been a great line for a fiction novel.

But seriously, I felt happier than ever holding Katniss's hand during English class, even though the rest of the class stared at us incredulously and professor Heavensbee kept sneaking furtive glances in our direction and muttering to himself to visit his therapist about hallucinations.

The only dark hole in my ultra huge galaxy of joy was the fact that I had achieved my success by going against the sacred book. It was not a sin, but it made me doubt the power of the book. But the book could not lie! It was the eternal truth, and the author, Iman. , was the modern day equivalent of Buddha in terms of advice, wasn't he?

The thoughts continued to swirl in my brain as the bell rang and Katniss and I made our way to the cafeteria for lunch.

As I ate my father's special turkey-cranberry-ketchup sandwich which happened to be my favourite, I looked at the guys. The expression on their faces mirrored mine. I looked into Finnick's eyes and, by the telepathic communication that we all shared; I knew that he and all the others shared the same fears as I did.

"Umm Madge," said Gale, hesitantly. Madge looked up from the remains of her lunch of carrot sticks and diet soda and dropped the cupcake she had been unwrapping. ( Madge's theory, apparently, was that if she ate nothing but carrot sticks and diet coke for lunch she could reward herself with dessert. She had read about a girl in a chick lit who practiced that and found the idea rather appealing).

"What?" she asked, her eyebrows raised in an unnerving and almost feline way which clearly said 'I don't care if you are my boyfriend how dare you disturb me during my few minutes of bliss'.

"Uh, I forgot my atlas in the library and we have geography in another ten minutes so, um, could you do me a favour and get it for me? Please." asked Gale making a puppy dog face. "And how about all you other girls accompany her!"

It wasn't exactly the smoothest lie and the girls could definitely smell a rat but they got up and went away silently. They probably had something to discuss as well.

"Well, what should we do?" asked Marvel once the girls were far away.

"I just don't know!" Finnick exclaimed on the verge of tears. He had found the book in his brother's trash when he was eleven and had proudly retrieved it and brought it to school to show us the next day and we had placed all our faith in the book ever since. The idea of it being phony was horrifying enough to us, I couldn't imagine what he was going through.

"You know what," I said. "Let's meet up at my house tonight and discuss the situation." The others nodded in agreement.

I sat and wondered whether the book had hindered us rather than helped us over the years. My ex girlfriend Leevy had found my tactics funny, but some of the other girls hadn't. Maybe the book wasn't all that great after all.

The loud clattering of high heels against the cold marble floor signified the arrival of the girls.

"I'm sorry Gale, I searched everywhere but I couldn't find your atlas." said Madge apologetically.

"Uh that's alright Madge, because you know what, I just remembered I left it in my locker." Gale replied.

Annie held back Madge's hands to stop her from getting hold of any sharp objects as we all walked onward to class.

I pondered over the subject all through class and hoped that school would end fast so that my mind could finally have some peace.

**Sorry for the short chapter! Belated happy new year to you all and I'm really sorry for ditching you guys for so long!**


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